Today is September 21 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “Do you follow your intense obsessions mercilessly?”
People who navigate the chaos like author Anne Rice understand the value of following her obsessions.
In 1995 Schocken Books published a collection of short stories by Franz Kafka that included influential works such as “The Metamorphosis” and “In the Penal Colony.”
The foreword was written by Anne Rice who stated that Kafka’s tales provided her with a guidepost and a decisive form of encouragement. “Kafka became a model for me, a continuing inspiration. Not only did he exhibit an irrepressible originality—who else would think of things like this!—he seemed to say that only in one’s most personal language can the crucial tales of a writer be told. Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly. Only if you do that can you hope to make the reader feel a particle of what you, the writer, have known and feel compelled to share.”
Rice followed her intense obsessions. Do you?